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Painful Sexual Intercourse Caused by a Disproportionately Long Penis: An Historical Note on a Remarkable Treatment Devised by Guilhelmius Fabricius Hildanus (1560–1634)

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Abstract

Between 1598 and 1641, the famous surgeon Guilhelmius Fabricius Hildanus (1560–1634) published 600 medical and surgical observations in his Observationum et curationum chirurgicarum centuriae I–VI. One of the case reports bears the title ‘Pain and infertility caused by a too large penis.’ The woman described in this case report most likely suffered from positional deep dyspareunia. Hildanus invented in 1593 a remarkable made-to-measure device. This device was a very well-considered and faultless curative for the woman's dyspareunia. It seemed that the dyspareunia had a simple cause: the disproportional large penis of the woman's husband. Four hundred years later, Hildanus’ forgotten penis shortening device deserves a resurrection in today's medical practice. This remarkable and almost forgotten case report is described and discussed.

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Correspondence to Erwin J. O. Kompanje.

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Kompanje, E.J.O. Painful Sexual Intercourse Caused by a Disproportionately Long Penis: An Historical Note on a Remarkable Treatment Devised by Guilhelmius Fabricius Hildanus (1560–1634). Arch Sex Behav 35, 603–605 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9057-z

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